Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.[Luke 18:1]
Why should we pray? Here's the short answer: because Jesus told us to. In Luke 18:1 we read, "Then [Jesus] spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart."
Of course, Jesus himself provided us with an example. Though He was God in human form, Jesus had a very deep prayer life. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39). On the cross, Jesus started with a prayer: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34).
Prior to raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus first spoke to God the Father. Looking up to Heaven, He said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me" (John 11:42–43). Then He shouted, "Lazarus, come forth!"
Before Jesus fed the five thousand, we read that He looked up toward Heaven and asked God's blessing on the food (see Matthew 14:19). And why did the mothers bring their little children to Jesus? So He would pray for them (see Matthew 19:13).
If Jesus felt the need to pray, then how much more should we feel the need to pray? He gave us an example to follow.
And here is another thing to consider. Even if prayer were extremely difficult, which it is not, even if prayer were very unpleasant to engage in, which it isn't, and even if we never received answers, which isn't the case, we still should pray. Why? Because we are commanded in the Scriptures to do so.
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Today's Bible Reading
Joshua 21:1 Then the leaders of the ancestral clans of the L’vi’im approached El‘azar the cohen, Y’hoshua the son of Nun and the leaders of the ancestral clans of the tribes of the people of Isra’el. 2 It was at Shiloh in the land of Kena‘an that they spoke to them; they said, “Adonai ordered through Moshe that we be given cities to live in, with the surrounding open land for our livestock.” 3 So out of their inheritance the people of Isra’el gave the L’vi’im the following cities with the surrounding open land:
4 The lot came out for the families of the K’hati. The descendants of Aharon the cohen, who were of the L’vi’im, received by lot thirteen cities from the tribes of Y’hudah, Shim‘on and Binyamin. 5 The rest of the descendants of K’hat received by lot ten cities from the families of the tribes of Efrayim and Dan and the half-tribe of M’nasheh. 6 The descendants of Gershon received by lot thirteen cities from the families of the tribes of Yissakhar, Asher, Naftali and the half-tribe of M’nasheh in Bashan. 7 The descendants of M’rari according to their families received twelve cities from the tribes of Re’uven, Gad and Z’vulun. 8 The people of Isra’el gave by lot to the L’vi’im these cities with the surrounding open land, as Adonai had ordered through Moshe.
9 They gave from the tribe of the descendants of Y’hudah and from the tribe of the descendants of Shim‘on these cities here mentioned by name; 10 they were for the descendants of Aharon, of the families of the K’hati, who were among the descendants of Levi; because theirs was the first lot. 11 They gave them: Kiryat-Arba — this Arba was the father of ‘Anak — (that is, Hevron), in the hills of Y’hudah, with the surrounding open land; 12 but the fields and villages of the city they gave to Kalev the son of Y’funeh as his possession. 13 Thus to the descendants of Aharon the cohen they gave: Hevron with its surrounding open land, already a city of refuge for the killer; Livnah with its surrounding open land; 14 Yatir with its surrounding open land; Esht’moa with its surrounding open land; 15 Holon with its surrounding open land; D’vir with its surrounding open land; 16 ‘Ayin with its surrounding open land, Yutah with its surrounding open land and Beit-Shemesh with its surrounding open land — nine cities out of these two tribes. 17 Out of the tribe of Binyamin: Giv‘on with its surrounding open land, Geva with its surrounding open land, 18 ‘Anatot with its surrounding open land and ‘Almon with its surrounding open land — four cities. 19 All the cities of the descendants of Aharon, the cohanim, numbered thirteen cities with their surrounding open land.
20 The families of the descendants of K’hat, who were L’vi’im, that is, the rest of the descendants of K’hat, received the cities of their lot. Out of the tribe of Efrayim 21 they gave them: Sh’khem with its surrounding open land, in the hills of Efrayim, the city of refuge for the killer; Gezer with its surrounding open land; 22 Kivtzayim with its surrounding open land and Beit-Horon with its surrounding open land — four cities. 23 Out of the tribe of Dan: Elt’ke with its surrounding open land, Gib’ton with its surrounding open land, 24 Ayalon with its surrounding open land and Gat-Rimmon with its surrounding open land — four cities. 25 Out of the half-tribe of M’nasheh: Ta‘nakh with its surrounding open land and Gat-Rimmon with its surrounding open land — two cities. 26 All the cities of the families of the rest of the descendants of K’hat numbered ten with their surrounding open land.
27 To the descendants of Gershon, of the families of the L’vi’im, out of the half-tribe of M’nasheh they gave: Golan in Bashan with its surrounding open land, the city of refuge for the killer; and B’esht’rah with its surrounding open land — two cities. 28 Out of the tribe of Yissakhar: Kishyon with its surrounding open land, Dovrat with its surrounding open land, 29 Yarmut with its surrounding open land and ‘Ein-Ganim with its surrounding open land — four cities. 30 Out of the tribe of Asher: Mishal with its surrounding open land, ‘Avdon with its surrounding open land, 31 Helkat with its surrounding open land and Rechov with its surrounding open land — four cities. 32 Out of the tribe of Naftali: Kedesh in the Galil with its surrounding open land, the city of refuge for the killer; Hammot-Dor with its surrounding open land; and Kartan with its surrounding open land — three cities. 33 All the cities of the Gershuni according to their families were thirteen cities with their surrounding open land.
34 To the families of the descendants of M’rari, the rest of the L’vi’im, out of the tribe of Z’vulun: Yokne‘am with its surrounding open land, Kartah with its surrounding open land, 35 Dimnah with its surrounding open land and Nahalal with its surrounding open land — four cities. {(36) Out of the tribe of Re’uven: Betzer with its surrounding open land, Yachtzah with its surrounding open land, (37) K’demot with its surrounding open land and Mefa‘at with its surrounding open land — four cities.}* 36 (38) Out of the tribe of Gad: Ramot in Gil‘ad with its surrounding open land, the city of refuge for the killer; Machanayim with its surrounding open land; 37 (39) Heshbon with its surrounding open land and Ya‘zer with its surrounding open land — four cities in all. 38 (40) All these were the cities of the descendants of M’rari according to their families, the rest of the families of the L’vi’im; their lot totaled twelve cities.
39 (41) All the cities of the L’vi’im, forty-eight cities with their surrounding open land, are to be in among the lands possessed by the people of Isra’el — 40 (42) these cities, each with its surrounding open land; thus is it to be with all these cities.
41 (43) So Adonai gave Isra’el all the land which he swore to give to their ancestors, and they took possession of it and lived in it. 42 (44) Then Adonai gave them rest all around, according to everything he had sworn to their ancestors. Not a man from all their enemies stood against them; Adonai handed all their enemies over to them. 43 (45) Not one good thing that Adonai had spoken of to the household of Isra’el failed to happen; it all took place.
22:1 Then Y’hoshua called the Re’uveni, the Gadi and the half-tribe of M’nasheh, 2 and said to them, “You have done everything Moshe the servant of Adonai ordered you to do and heeded what I said in all the orders I gave you. 3 All this time you have not abandoned your kinsmen but have obeyed your commission, as Adonai your God ordered. 4 Now Adonai your God has given rest to your kinsmen, as he told them he would. So you too, return to your tents in the land which is your possession, which Moshe the servant of Adonai gave you beyond the Yarden. 5 Only take great care to obey the mitzvah and the Torah which Moshe the servant of Adonai gave you — to love Adonai your God, follow all his ways, observe his mitzvot, cling to him, and serve him with all your heart and being.” 6 Then Y’hoshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents. 7 (To the one half-tribe of M’nasheh, Moshe had given an inheritance in Bashan; but to the other half, Y’hoshua gave one among their kinsmen on the west side of the Yarden.) When Y’hoshua sent them away to their tents he blessed them, 8 saying, “Return with great riches to your tents — with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron and with great quantities of clothing; share the spoil of your enemies with your kinsmen.”
9 So the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh returned; they left the people of Isra’el in Shiloh, in the land of Kena‘an, to go to the land of Gil‘ad, to the land they were to possess and which they already did possess — according to the order of Adonai through Moshe. 10 When the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe arrived in the area of the land of Kena‘an near the Yarden, they built an altar there by the Yarden, a large, impressive altar. 11 The people of Isra’el heard of it and said, “Look! The descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh have built an altar by the frontier of the land of Kena‘an, in the area by the Yarden, on the side that belongs to the people of Isra’el.”
12 When the people of Isra’el heard of it, the entire community of Isra’el gathered together in Shiloh to wage war against them. 13 The people of Isra’el sent Pinchas the son of El‘azar the cohen into the land of Gil‘ad to the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh. 14 With him were ten leaders, one leader of an ancestral clan for each of the tribes of Isra’el; each one was a head of his ancestral clan among the thousands of Isra’el. 15 They came to the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh in the land of Gil‘ad and spoke with them; they said, 16 “Here is what the whole community of Adonai is saying: ‘What is this treachery that you have committed against the God of Isra’el, turning away today from following Adonai, in that you have built yourselves an altar, thus rebelling today against Adonai? 17 Is the guilt we incurred at P‘or not enough for us? We haven’t cleansed ourselves from it to this day, even though a plague came on the community of Adonai. 18 Is this why you have to turn away today from following Adonai? If you rebel against Adonai today, he will be angry tomorrow with the whole community of Isra’el. 19 If the land you have taken possession of is unclean, then cross back over into the land which belongs to Adonai, where the tabernacle of Adonai is located, and take a possession among us. But don’t rebel against Adonai, and don’t rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar other than the altar of Adonai our God. 20 Didn’t Achan the son of Zerach commit a sin in regard to things set aside for destruction, and God’s anger fell on the whole community of Isra’el? He was not the only one who died for his crime.’”
21 Then the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh answered the leaders of the thousands of Isra’el: 22 “The Mighty One, God, is Adonai! He knows, and Isra’el will know — if we acted in rebellion or treachery against Adonai, don’t vindicate us today! 23 We haven’t built an altar in order to turn away from following Adonai or to offer on it burnt offerings, grain offerings or sacrifices as peace offerings. If we have, let Adonai himself require us to atone for it. 24 Rather, we did this out of anxiety, because we thought, ‘Sometime in the future, your descendants might say to our descendants, “You don’t have anything to do with Adonai, the God of Isra’el, 25 because Adonai made the Yarden the border between us and you, so you descendants of Re’uven and Gad have no share in Adonai.”’ In this way your descendants could make our descendants stop fearing Adonai. 26 So we said, ‘Let us now make preparations and build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, 27 but as a witness between us and you, and between our generations who will come after us, so that we may perform the service for Adonai in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices and peace offerings — so that your descendants will not say to our descendants at some future time, “You have no share in Adonai.”’ 28 For this reason we said, ‘When they accuse us or future generations in this way, we will say, “Look! Here is a replica of the altar of Adonai which our ancestors made, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.”’ 29 Far be it from us that we should rebel against Adonai and turn away today from following Adonai by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings or sacrifices other than the altar of Adonai our God which stands in front of his tabernacle!”
30 When Pinchas the cohen and the leaders of the community, the heads of the thousands of Isra’el who were with him, heard what the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the descendants of M’nasheh said, it satisfied them. 31 Pinchas the son of El‘azar the cohen said to the descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the descendants of M’nasheh, “Today we know that Adonai is here with us, because you have not committed this treasonous act against Adonai. Now you have saved the people of Isra’el from the anger of Adonai.” 32 So Pinchas the son of El‘azar the cohen and the leaders returned from the descendants of Re’uven and Gad, from the land of Gil‘ad to the land of Kena‘an and the people of Isra’el, bringing word back to them. 33 What they said satisfied the people of Isra’el. The people of Isra’el blessed God and said no more about going to wage war against the descendants of Re’uven and Gad and destroying the land where they lived. 34 The descendants of Re’uven and Gad called the altar “‘Ed [a witness]” between us that Adonai is God.
Psalm 47: (0) For the leader. A psalm of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with cries of joy!
3 (2) For Adonai ‘Elyon is awesome,
a great king over all the earth.
4 (3) He makes peoples subject to us,
puts nations under our feet.
5 (4) He chooses our heritage for us,
the pride of Ya‘akov, whom he loves. (Selah)
6 (5) God goes up to shouts of acclaim,
Adonai to a blast on the shofar.
7 (6) Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our king, sing praises!
8 (7) For God is king of all the earth;
sing praises in a maskil.
9 (8) God rules the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
10 (9) The leaders of the people gather together,
the people of the God of Avraham;
for the rulers of the earth belong to God,
who is exalted on high.
1 Corinthians 10:1 For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea, 2 and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe, 3 also they all ate the same food from the Spirit, 4 and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah. 5 Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.
6 Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were — as the Tanakh puts it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in revelry.”[a] 8 And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day. 9 And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. 10 And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.
11 These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim. 12 Therefore, let anyone who thinks he is standing up be careful not to fall! 13 No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.
14 Therefore, my dear friends, run from idolatry! 15 I speak to you as sensible people; judge for yourselves what I am saying. 16 The “cup of blessing” over which we make the b’rakhah — isn’t it a sharing in the bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah? The bread we break, isn’t it a sharing in the body of the Messiah? 17 Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many constitute one body, since we all partake of the one loaf of bread. 18 Look at physical Isra’el: don’t those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? 19 So, what am I saying? That food sacrificed to idols has any significance in itself? or that an idol has significance in itself? 20 No, what I am saying is that the things which pagans sacrifice, they sacrifice not to God but to demons; and I don’t want you to become sharers of the demons! 21 You can’t drink both a cup of the Lord and a cup of demons, you can’t partake in both a meal of the Lord and a meal of demons. 22 Or are we trying to make the Lord jealous? We aren’t stronger than he is, are we?
23 “Everything is permitted,” you say? Maybe, but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted?” Maybe, but not everything is edifying. 24 No one should be looking out for his own interests, but for those of his fellow. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for the earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.[b] 27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal, and you want to go, eat whatever is put in front of you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This meat was offered as a sacrifice,” then don’t eat it, out of consideration for the person who pointed it out and also for conscience’s sake — 29 however, I don’t mean your conscience but that of the other person. You say, “Why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I participate with thankfulness, why am I criticized over something for which I myself bless God?” 31 Well, whatever you do, whether it’s eating or drinking or anything else, do it all so as to bring glory to God. 32 Do not be an obstacle to anyone — not to Jews, not to Gentiles, and not to God’s Messianic Community. 33 Just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not looking out for my own interests but for those of the many, so that they may be saved;[Footnotes:
1 Corinthians 10:7 Exodus 32:6
1 Corinthians 10:26 Psalm 24:1, 50:12, 89:12(11)]
Harvest Ministries with Greg LaurieP.O. Box 4000
Riverside, California 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1-800-821-3300
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